Hugh Wood

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Hugh Wood (born 27 June 1932, Parbold, UK) is a British composer.

Contents

[edit] Biography

While Wood was brought up in a musical family, it was only after graduating in History from Oxford that he decided to dedicate his energies to composition; and he moved to London in 1954 to study with William Lloyd Webber, Anthony Milner, Iain Hamilton, and Mátyás Seiber. Sometimes violently expressionistic, sometimes poignantly lyrical, his music is powerfully communicative and intensely felt, although when exploring lighter moods, such as in the jazzy Piano Concerto, his writing is equally eloquent. He typically prefers chamber music genres, though several of his large-scale works, such as his Symphony and Violin Concerto, are amongst his most striking. In recent years he has contributed several articles on music to The Times Literary Supplement.


[edit] Career highlights

  • 1965 - highly acclaimed Proms premiere of BBC commission Scenes from Comus.
  • 1969 - Proms premiere of Cello Concerto, commissioned by the BBC.
  • 1982 - Proms premiere of Symphony by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
  • 1998 - UK premiere of Variations for Orchestra at Last Night of the Proms.
  • 1999 - Serenade and Elegy premiered at Cheltenham Festival.
  • 2001 - The Lindsays premiere String Quartet No 5 in Sheffield.

[edit] Key works

  • Variations for viola and piano, Op 1 (1958)
  • Chamber Concerto, Op 15 (1971; large ensemble)
  • Robert Graves Songs, Set 1, Op 18 (1976; high voice, piano)
  • String Quartet No 3, Op 20 (1978)
  • Horn Trio, Op 29 (1989)
  • Piano Concerto, Op 32 (1991)


[edit] Selected recordings


[edit] External links

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